'Abdu'l-Baha… incarnates an institution for which we can
find no parallel whatsoever in any of the world's recognized religious systems… 
The House of Justice hopes that all the friends will
remember that the ultimate aim in life of every soul should be to attain
spiritual excellence - to win the good pleasure of God. The true spiritual
station of any soul is known only to God. It is quite a different thing from
the ranks and stations that men and women occupy in the various sectors of
society. Whoever has his eyes fixed on the goal of attaining the good pleasure
of God will accept with joy and radiant acquiescence whatever work or station
is assigned to him in the Cause of God, and will rejoice to serve Him under all
conditions.
A major object of the recent emphasis on establishing
training institutes is to increase the capacity of individuals to teach the
Cause effectively. Study circles, which are local extensions of an institute,
are intended to serve this purpose. While it is highly desirable to include
seekers in study circles wherever possible, the individual believer retains the
inescapable duty to teach the Faith on his or her own initiative.
Whatsoever driveth thee away from the one true God and
shutteth thee out from the Best Beloved is blameworthy and reprehensible, whilst
everything that draweth thee nigh unto Him is acceptable and praiseworthy. One
must consider matters with the eye of discernment, shun whatsoever may be the
cause of remoteness from God, and awaken to all that is the source of nearness
and illumination.
In regard to your question concerning the authenticity of
the Qur'an. I have referred it to the Guardian for his opinion. He thinks that
the Qur'an is, notwithstanding the opinion of certain historians, quite
authentic, and that consequently it should be considered in its entirety by
every faithful and loyal believer as the sacred scriptures of the Muhammadan
Revelation.
Another commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another
even as I love you. Great mercy and blessings are promised to the people of
your land, but on one condition; that their hearts be filled with the fire of
love, that they live in perfect harmony and kindness like one soul in different
bodies, like one soul in different bodies. Never forget this; look at one
another with the eye of perfection; look at me, follow me, be as I am; take no
thought for yourselves or your lives, whether ye eat or whether ye sleep,
whether ye are comfortable, whether ye are well or ill, whether ye are with
friends or foes, whether ye receive praise or blame; for all these things ye
must care not at all. Look at me and be as I am; ye must die to yourselves and
to the world, so ye shall be born again and enter the kingdom of heaven. Behold
the candle, how it gives light. It weeps its life away drop by drop in order to
give forth its flame of light.
…the Greater Covenant which every Manifestation of God makes
with His followers, promising that in the fulness of time a new Manifestation
will be sent, and taking from them the undertaking to accept Him when this
occurs. … the Lesser Covenant that a Manifestation of God makes with His
followers that they will accept His appointed successor after Him. If they do
so, the Faith can remain united and pure. If not, the Faith becomes divided and
its force spent. It is a Covenant of this kind that Bahá'u'lláh made with His
followers regarding 'Abdu'l-Bahá and that 'Abdu'l-Bahá perpetuated through the
Administrative Order...
A Covenant in the religious sense is a binding agreement
between God and man, whereby God requires of man certain behaviour in return
for which He guarantees certain blessings, or whereby He gives man certain
bounties in return for which He takes from those who accept them an undertaking
to behave in a certain way.
As to the question whether the souls will recognize each
other in the spiritual world: This (fact) is certain; for the Kingdom is the
world of vision (i.e., things are visible in it), where all the concealed
realities will become disclosed. How much more the well-known souls will become
manifest. The mysteries of which man is heedless in this earthly world, those
will he discover in the heavenly world, and there will he be informed of the
secret of truth; how much more will he recognize or discover persons with whom
he hath been associated. Undoubtedly, the holy souls who find a pure eye and
are favored with insight will, in the kingdom of lights, be acquainted with all
mysteries, and will seek the bounty of witnessing the reality of every great
soul. Even they will manifestly behold the Beauty of God in that world.
Likewise will they find all the friends of God, both those of the former and
recent times, present in the heavenly assemblage.
The soul pervadeth throughout the whole body, and its
commands are effective in all the parts and limbs of man. Notwithstanding its
utmost sanctification (or abstraction) this soul is manifest and evident in all
its grades, in this material form.
The friends of God should, through the instrumentality of
their business, lead the people to God's path, and make them so astonished as
to exclaim: "How great is their truthfulness, how high their
trustworthiness, and how true their good-will."
It is hoped that all the Bahá'í students will ... be led to
investigate and analyse the principles of the Faith and to correlate them with
the modern aspects of philosophy and science. Every intelligent and thoughtful
young Bahá'í should always approach the Cause in this way, for therein lies the
very essence of the principle of independent investigation of truth.
The heart must be sanctified from every form of selfishness
and lust, for the weapons of the unitarians and the saints were and are the
fear of God. That is the buckler which guardeth man from the arrows of hatred
and abomination. Unceasingly hath the standard of piety been victorious, and
accounted amongst the most puissant hosts of the world. Thereby do the saints subdue
the cities of [men’s] hearts by the permission of God, the Lord of hosts.
... O ye illumined youth, strive by night and by day to
unravel the mysteries of the mind and spirit, and to grasp the secrets of the
Day of God. Inform yourselves of the evidences that the Most Great Name hath
dawned.
....the Báb hath said: "Should a tiny ant desire in
this day to be possessed of such power as to be able to unravel the abstrusest
and most bewildering passages of the Qur'án, its wish will no doubt be
fulfilled, inasmuch as the mystery of eternal might vibrates within the
innermost being of all created things." If so helpless a creature can be
endowed with so subtle a capacity, how much more efficacious must be the power
released through the liberal effusions of the grace of Bahá'u'lláh!
From amongst all mankind hath He chosen you, and your eyes
have been opened to the light of guidance and your ears attuned to the music of
the Company above; and blessed by abounding grace, your hearts and souls have
been born into new life. Thank ye and praise ye God that the hand of infinite
bestowals hath set upon your heads this gem-studded crown, this crown whose
lustrous jewels will forever flash and sparkle down all the reaches of time.
…the love of God. The light of this love is kindled, through
the knowledge of God, in the lamp of the heart, and its spreading rays illumine
the world and bestow upon man the life of the Kingdom. And in truth the fruit
of human existence is the love of God, which is the spirit of life and grace
everlasting.
…that which leads to everlasting life, eternal honour,
universal enlightenment, and true success and salvation is, first and foremost,
the knowledge of God. It is clear that this knowledge takes precedence over
every other knowledge and constitutes the greatest virtue of the human world.
For the understanding of the reality of things confers a material advantage in
the realm of being and brings about the progress of outward civilization, but
the knowledge of God is the cause of spiritual progress and attraction, true
vision and insight, the exaltation of humanity, the appearance of divine
civilization, the rectification of morals, and the illumination of the
conscience.
O thou who art rejoiced by the Divine Glad tidings! Verily I have received thy last letter, and
thanked God that thou didst reach Paris protected and guarded by Him. Thank
thou God that He assisted thee to behold the brilliant faces of the believers
of God, and favored thee to meet them in American countries; for verily,
beholding those shining countenances is a divine gift. By it, the hearts are dilated,
the souls are rejoiced, and the spirits are attracted toward the Supreme
Concourse.
The sovereignty of God is eternal and not accidental. His
creation, His Kingdom, His Army are coexistent and will continue as such. The
bestowals and bounties of God are constant and are uninterrupted. Like the
light and heat of the sun, they have no cessation. The holy Manifestations of
God, Who are the dawning places of divine bounties, have ever been and shall
ever be. The wisdom and purpose of their appearance is to cause the image and
likeness of God to appear in the world of man.
It is obvious that this endless universe, this mighty
handiwork of God, this vast firmament, these gigantic globes are not merely six
or seven thousand years old. They are ancient. The reference in the Torah to
six thousand years has an inner meaning and should not be taken literally. It
is stated that God created the heavens and the earth in six days. If before
such a creation there was no sun, no east and no west, how was it possible to
determine the length of each day without the existence of a sun? Thus the
statement has a different meaning.
The Divine Reality presupposes a creation, the All-Provider
presupposes a recipient of His bounty. To imagine a God without His creatures
is like imagining a king without a country and a people. A king must have a
kingdom. Could there be a king without a country and subjects? It is an
impossibility. If there had been a time when there were no country and no army,
how could we say there was a king at that time? Thus he must have had his
people. Thus, as the Divine Eternity is infinite, His creation is also without
beginning and without end. From everlasting God was the Creator, the
All-Provider, the Quickener and the Bestower. There was no time when His
attributes did not express themselves. Cessation is wholly inconceivable. The
sun is the sun because of its light and heat. If we conceive the cessation of
heat and light, we predicate the non-existence of the sun. If it had no light
and no heat, it was not the sun. Likewise, when we say that at one time God had
no creation and no recipient of His grace, we assert that there was no Creator.
This is denying the eternity of the Divine Entity and regarding Him as an
accidental being.
…the Prophets are able Physicians and informed of the
mysteries of the universe. They have Their finger on the pulse of the world,
and They diagnose and foresee the ailments and illnesses which are to come. It
is from the appearance, signs, and conditions of the universe itself that They
infer these mysteries. Thus, when an able physician notes certain signs and
symptoms in the body of a patient, he diagnoses future ailments, illnesses, and
conditions. This proceeds from his knowledge, skill, and power of inference.
Question: How many kinds of divine Prophets are there?
As to the position of Christianity, let it be stated without
any hesitation or equivocation that its divine origin is unconditionally
acknowledged, that the Sonship and Divinity of Jesus Christ are fearlessly
asserted, that the divine inspiration of the Gospel is fully recognized, that
the reality of the mystery of the Immaculacy of the Virgin Mary is confessed, and
the primacy of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, is upheld and defended.
...they that tread the path of faith, they that thirst for
the wine of certitude, must cleanse themselves of all that is earthly -- their
ears from idle talk, their minds from vain imaginings, their hearts from
worldly affections, their eyes from that which perisheth. They should put their
trust in God, and, holding fast unto Him, follow in His way. Then will they be
made worthy of the effulgent glories of the sun of divine knowledge and
understanding, and become the recipients of a grace that is infinite and
unseen, inasmuch as man can never hope to attain unto the knowledge of the
All-Glorious, can never quaff from the stream of divine knowledge and wisdom,
can never enter the abode of immortality, nor partake of the cup of divine
nearness and favour, unless and until he ceases to regard the words and deeds of
mortal men as a standard for the true understanding and recognition of God and
His Prophets.
Nothing short of the spirit of a true Bahá'í can hope to
reconcile the principles of mercy and justice, of freedom and submission, of
the sanctity of the right of the individual and of self-surrender, of
vigilance, discretion, and prudence on the one hand, and fellowship, candor,
and courage on the other.
To 'get to heaven' as you say is dependent on two things --
faith in the Manifestation of God in His Day, in other words in this Age in
Bahá'u'lláh; and good deeds, in other words living to the best of our ability a
noble life and doing unto others as we would be done by. But we must always
remember that our existence and everything we have or ever will have is
dependent upon the Mercy of God and His Bounty, and therefore He can accept
into His heaven, which is really nearness to Him, even the lowliest if He
pleases. We always have the hope of receiving His Mercy if we reach out for it.
If you read the utterances of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá
with selflessness and care and concentrate upon them, you will discover truths
unknown to you before and will obtain an insight into the problems that have
baffled the great thinkers of the world.